Utah Jazz: Player Awards at the Halfway Point

Most Valuable Player

I’m known to overthink things, but I’ve always felt like the Most Valuable Player award leaves a lot up to interpretation. Should it go to the overall best player? To the player whose absence would be the most detrimental? Isn’t it possible that perhaps a team’s (or the league’s) best player isn’t necessarily its most valuable?

If we’re looking strictly at stats and ability, then you’ve got to go with Gordon Hayward for this one. He’s the team’s leading scorer at 22.2 points per game, the third best three-point shooter among those who average at least one attempt per game and in the top three on the team in rebounds, assists and steals.

He’s having an incredible season so far and could very well end up earning his first ever All-Star bid.

Yet, Gordon Hayward has already been arguably the Jazz’s best player over the past four seasons, none of which have seen Utah qualify for the playoffs. However, with newcomer George Hill in the mix, who’s having a career year with the Jazz, they now find themselves in the thick of the playoff race. So Hill also makes an interesting argument as the team’s MVP.

While perhaps not as potentially dominating as Hayward, there’s no doubting how important Hill is for this team. Particularly for a squad that suffered through so many years without a true point guard, perhaps he could be seen as the one who is most valuable.

Utah is 12-4 with Hill in the lineup and although Hayward is the leading scorer, Hill is the team’s best three-point shooter at 48.6 percent, boasts the best field goal percentage of any non-big man on the team (excluding Alec Burks’ measly 16 minutes this season) at 52.6 percent and leads the team in both assists and steals.

There’s also a unique argument to be made for Rudy Gobert as the team’s MVP based on his incredible rim protection that truly solidifies the Jazz’s reputed defense, but in terms of total value I’d have to say that Gobert is still a few paces behind Hill and Hayward for MVP (don’t worry though, we’ll be getting back to Rudy with an award here soon).

And in terms of who ends up with the award at the end of the day, I’ll admit, a part of me felt inclined to give it to newcomer George Hill based on how much he has transformed this team, provided a vital veteran presence and run the offense with ease as an effective point guard. But what made me change my mind was simply the low number of games Hill has logged this year.

While his 12-4 record with the Jazz is incredible, Gordon Hayward is the one who has steered the Jazz through this season’s onslaught of injuries and been the driving force in keeping them afloat in the West with an impressive winning record.

So while if George Hill had been more healthy throughout the first half of the season he may have earned the nod as MVP thanks to the phenomenal impact he’s had on the Jazz so far this year, I’m going to stick with the more expected choice and pin Gordon Hayward as Utah’s mid-season Most Valuable Player.

MVP – Gordon Hayward